Have you re-joined the Force?

16 March 2020

Officers who have re-joined Derbyshire Constabulary are being urged to check their salary to ensure they are on the correct pay point.

It comes after an officer who served another force for eight years until 2015 and then re-joined Derbyshire in 2019 was placed on the wrong scale, meaning she was losing out on money.

Now, with the help of Derbyshire Police Federation, she is being reimbursed the money owed and is on the correct scale.

Kirsty Bunn, secretary of Derbyshire Police Federation, said: “As a result of help from a solicitor, the Force has accepted that the officer was put on wrong pay point and is being reimbursed.

“What I’m concerned about is others who may have been affected – if you have re-joined please check you are on the pay scale relevant to your experience. If you have any concerns or queries please speak to someone at the Federation as we will be able to give you further help and advice.”

In this recent case, the officer was put on Pay Point 6, as when she left the other force in 2015 she was on a salary of £34,779 which was, at that time, Pay Point 8.

Since her old force’s pay points did not match Derbyshire’s, the approach taken in determining her pay was to place her on the nearest current salary – this being £36,189 and Pay Point 6.

The Federation argued that, with the exception of London weighting, constables’ pay scales do not vary nationally. In April 2014, constables’ pay scales were reduced by three points (from 10 to 7), which took effect over two years from 1 April 2014.

As such, the fact that she was on Pay Point 8 when she left the other force in 2015 simply reflected the national pay scales as they were at the time and not a difference in scales between her old force and Derbyshire.

Under Police Regulations, a constable’s pay point is determined by officers’ reckonable service in accordance with Regulation 24 and Annex F. In calculating reckonable service for the purposes of pay at a particular rank, Regulation 24(2) states that regard must be had to ‘all his service in that rank, whether in that or another police force’.

This is supported by the College of Policing guidance in respect of Regulation 24 which states that ‘a re-joiner member would not be expected to restart the pay scale if re-entering at the same or lower rank as on departure. Instead they will re-enter at the pay point commensurate to length of service previously completed in that rank as per governing regulations for police pay’.